Forget me nots

By Simon CrerarApril 5 2003
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You've probably already mentally deleted most of what you searched for last year. But it's a safe bet Google hasn't. At Google's Californian headquarters, a screen behind the main reception scrolls live search requests that paint a fascinating picture of what we look for online.

According to Google's monthly Zeitgeist round-up, the favoured requests of worldwide surfers in February included Nasa, St Valentine's Day and carnivals. Last year's most searched for items included Spiderman, Shakira and the Winter Olympics.

If you are one of the millions of Australians who regularly visit the popular search engine when hunting for information online, you may have spotted the site's recent metamorphosis into a dedicated Australian search service. After three months of trials, Google.com.au officially went live on March 25. Enter www.google.com and you will be redirected to the local service.

What are the implications for Australian web surfers? Nearly half search via Google - acknowledged by many as the net's fastest, most accurate engine. The new version makes it much easier to find local content, services and goods for sale.

Searchers can click Pages from Australia to narrow their hunt to Australian websites only.
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The benefits for the nation's online stores are enormous. For a small fee, merchants can choose the keywords that determine where their ads will appear (for example, "surf gear Sydney"), and reach audiences searching for a particular product. Google claim that its AdWords system is five times more successful than other online advertising methods.

Australian web businesses have welcomed the launch. Claiming his domain registration business has already grown 70 per cent thanks to the new localised engine, Anthony Dever of Queensland's Hosting Buzz says Australian web users are the big winners, "now surfers can easily and effectively narrow the scope of their search to Australian sources". An AdWords account can be set up online for as little as $10. More than 40 other countries already have country-specific search pages.

So why has it taken Google so long to launch a dedicated Australian version? "Our timing is good," says Kate Vale, head of sales for Australia.

"We have responded to a demand from local advertisers wanting local service and local expertise. We realised we need to be here."

The demand is there. Internet research group Nielsen NetRatings says Google searches in Australia grew 40 per cent last year, while the number of Australians going online increased only 6 per cent. Net monitor RedSheriff says Google is the No. 1 search site in Australia. With 3.5 million visitors a month, the engine is used by 46 per cent of Australian surfers.

Google is constantly innovating, testing technological goodies at labs.google.com and adding new options to its home page. The company was recently voted brand of the year in the United States.

Others worry about the vast amount of information Google collects. Many are unaware the site recognises them every time they visit, storing details of every search they make. Some, however, believe the site is getting too big for its boots.

Google stores your computer's IP address (which identifies your PC on the net), the date and time you visit, your browser details and the keywords you used to search.

Without asking permission, it sets a piece of software called a cookie on your computer that does not expire until 2038 - creating a detailed profile of your search terms over many years. Google probably already knows what footie team you support, where you go on holiday, perhaps even how you get your kicks. According to Danny Sullivan, editor of Searchenginewatch.com, all this is easily explained.

"Setting a cookie simply tells Google that a particular machine was involved with a particular request. It still doesn't know what individual owns that machine."

As the world's most popular engine, Google deals with some 23 million requests a day.

"To instantly establish long-running profiles for every surfer is no simple task," Sullivan says. "The sheer amount of data provides a great deal of anonymity."

Why does Google record what we search for? What is it doing with this information? The company refuses to say. Some worry their requests could be handed to US government agencies: bear that in mind next time you search for al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.

Leading the backlash is Daniel Brandt, the man behind Google Watch, whose main gripe is with the engine's PageRank technology that he says is not "uniquely democratic" as it claims, but "uniquely tyrannical", particularly against new websites.

Google Watch provides a forum for those with an axe to grind with the search engine. Among the site's claims: that Google ignores all inquiries about its privacy policy, illegally stores pages that webmasters have removed and has no "data retention policies" - meaning it can easily access your previous search requests at any time.

Google Watch also warns against adding Google's popular toolbar to your browser, suggesting the software records every web page you visit. Google Watch concedes that the engine's privacy policy is honest, but claims the toolbar updates itself without asking.